SNCF. Édouard Philippe denounces a "diversion of the right of withdrawal" to "unacceptable impact"

On the first day of the school holidays, the SNCF traffic is again very disturbed, this Saturday, on the network TER and some lines of Paris. The Prime Minister denounces a "diversion of the right of withdrawal" to "unacceptable impact".

Édouard Philippe denounced Saturday a "diversion of the right of withdrawal" to the impact "unacceptable" on the traffic of the SNCF still very disturbed the first day of the school holidays, asking the management to examine all the suites, "including judicial proceedings " .

"Today is the first day of the holiday of All Saints, it is three million French who must, a day like this, take the train. But they are for a very large number of them largely prevented, " said the Prime Minister at midday in the premises of Gare de l'Est.

He went there while the traffic was very disturbed, as the day before, by controllers and drivers who decided to exercise a right of withdrawal after an accident which made 11 wounded Wednesday, including a driver.

There is a "diversion of the right of withdrawal that has turned into a wildcat strike. This wildcat strike has an unacceptable impact for dozens and dozens of French, " insisted the Prime Minister who added that he " asked the SNCF to examine all the possible follow-up, including judicial ones . "

Earlier in the morning, the boss of the SNCF Guillaume Pepy deemed "not admissible" the movement he described as a "surprise strike" .

Unions dispute this analysis. "The arm wrestling is committed to the legal aspect. We consider that it is a right of withdrawal because the danger is not eliminated, " said Saturday Didier Mathis, Secretary General of Unsa Rail, second union of the group. As for formal notices to return to work by management, they are "illegal and constitute an obstacle to the right of withdrawal, which is a criminal offense," warned FO Cheminots in a statement.

This work stoppage follows an accident on Wednesday evening: a TER linking Charleville-Mézières to Reims hit an exceptional road convoy stuck on a level crossing in Saint-Pierre-sur-Vence (Ardennes). The prefecture of the Ardennes indicates that there were "eleven wounded" some of whom were hospitalized.

Drivers and controllers have asserted their right of withdrawal as early as Thursday and even more so on Friday morning, at the service take. The driver, injured and shocked, "had to rescue the passengers because it was the only SNCF agent on board! " , Lamented SUD-Rail in a statement.

"I run from hall to hall"

A meeting of more than five hours in the night from Friday to Saturday between the management and the unions ended in failure.

In the morning, traffic remained "very disturbed" on TER, with a situation "substantially identical to that of yesterday," an average of two trains on average, but significant disparities across regions. "Regional TER traffic is very close to normal" , it was said on the side of SNCF Paca, while conversely, SNCF Occitanie in Toulouse indicated that there was "no traffic on the TERs " , but " some buses " , and that " as we can make trains, we start them " .

On the Transilien network, the service had to be very disturbed all day on lines B and D with interconnection break, as well as lines H and R, but normal on the others.

Service also "very disturbed" on Intercités, indicates the direction. TGV traffic is expected to be normal on the East and North routes, but with 9 trains out of 10 on the Atlantic and South East axes. No low-cost Ouigo train was running.

In Paris, Gare de Lyon, Marie arrived well in advance with her son and dog to take a train to Marseille, posted 45 minutes late. "It has already been announced in three different places, I run from hall to hall," says the young woman who goes on vacation. "It's adventure, all agents seem overwhelmed, they answer us by looking on an application that does not look very responsive." The SNCF said that exchanges and refunds are possible without charge for TGV tickets, Ouigo and Intercités.

SUD-Rail, as well as the CGT-Cheminots, FO-Cheminots and the Fgaac-CFDT, dispute the operating mode "equipment agent alone" which makes it possible to run trains without a controller, evoking risks of safety for travelers, whereas according to the direction "it exists since tens of years" .

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